A Comparative Analysis of Bacterial Growth with Earphone Use

Background: Recently the worldwide usage of earphones has increased especially among the school and college students who have a high rate of sharing among them. Alike airline headsets, headphones and stethoscope ear-pieces, ear phones can easily be a vector of potential pathogens, which can give rise to otitis externa. Purpose: To compare the bacterial growth of the external ear in association with earphone and assess the role of earphones as vector or microorganisms. Material and Methods: 50 voluntary male subjects (age 18-25 years) were chosen and divided into two groups, A and B, according to the use of earphones. Swabs were taken from their left ear and the left earpiece of the earphone. Samples were processed as recommended. Results: In group A, bacteria were found in 20 (80%) ear and 14 (56%) earphone swabs. In group B, bacteria were found in 23 (92%) ear and 17 (68%) earphone swabs. Group B showed heavy growth and a significant increase in the number of bacterial growths after frequent and constant use. Conclusion: Frequent and constant use of earphones increases the bacterial growth in the ear and sharing of earphones might be a potential vector of commensals. It is therefore, always better not to share or else to clean the earphones before sharin

RTL2RTL Formal Equivalence: Boosting the Design Confidence

Increasing design complexity driven by feature and performance requirements and the Time to Market (TTM) constraints force a faster design and validation closure. This in turn enforces novel ways of identifying and debugging behavioral inconsistencies early in the design cycle. Addition of incremental features and timing fixes may alter the legacy design behavior and would inadvertently result in undesirable bugs. The most common method of verifying the correctness of the changed design is to run a dynamic regression test suite before and after the intended changes and compare the results, a method which is not exhaustive. Modern Formal Verification (FV) techniques involving new methods of proving Sequential Hardware Equivalence enabled a new set of solutions for the given problem, with complete coverage guarantee. Formal Equivalence can be applied for proving functional integrity after design changes resulting from a wide variety of reasons, ranging from simple pipeline optimizations to complex logic redistributions. We present here our experience of successfully applying the RTL to RTL (RTL2RTL) Formal Verification across a wide spectrum of problems on a Graphics design. The RTL2RTL FV enabled checking the design sanity in a very short time, thus enabling faster and safer design churn. The techniques presented in this paper are applicable to any complex hardware design.Comment: In Proceedings FSFMA 2014, arXiv:1407.195

Role of isoxsuprine as a tocolytic agent in the management of preterm labor in Indian clinical practice

Preterm labor (PTL) is one of the prime etiological factors responsible for neonatal disease burden and fatality. Despite recent advances in neonatal care and obstetrics, the occurrence of PTL is increasing, and women who have previously experienced spontaneous PTL are more susceptible to PTL in the future. Currently, PTL is diagnosed based on regular uterine contractions, their frequency, and associated cervical changes. Antenatal corticosteroids and magnesium sulfate interventions can improve neonatal outcomes. Tocolytic medications can temporarily delay delivery to facilitate the administration of corticosteroids. Isoxsuprine is a preferred tocolytic agent because it significantly increases the average latency period, delays delivery by >48 hours, and is associated with improved perinatal outcomes. This review examines recommendations from expert gynecologists for the management of PTL in the Indian clinical setting. The experts opined that intravenous administration with Isoxsuprine provides the advantage of dose titration, thereby minimizing potential side effects. Moreover, continuation of oral isoxsuprine till 37 weeks as maintenance therapy was advised as per literature evidence and experts’ clinical experience. Furthermore, concomitant administration of nifedipine and magnesium sulfate was not recommended as this can lead to neuromuscular blockade and fatal respiratory arrest, due to the action of both molecules on the blockage of calcium channels. The experts also emphasized the significance of considering individual experiences with various treatment options and identified specific obstacles and difficulties related to the utilization of isoxsuprine as a tocolytic agent, thereby offering valuable insights into potential approaches to overcome these challenges

Mapping Novel Pathways in Cardiovascular Disease Using eQTL Data: The Past, Present, and Future of Gene Expression Analysis

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified genetic variants associated with numerous cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. Newly identified polymorphisms associated with myocardial infarction, dyslipidemia, hypertension, diabetes, and insulin resistance suggest novel mechanistic pathways that underlie these and other complex diseases. Working out the connections between the polymorphisms identified in GWAS and their biological mechanisms has been especially challenging given the number of non-coding variants identified thus far. In this review, we discuss the utility of expression quantitative trait locus (eQTL) databases in the study of non-coding variants with respect to cardiovascular and metabolic phenotypes. Recent successes in using eQTL data to link variants with functional candidate genes will be reviewed, and the shortcomings of this approach will be outlined. Finally, we discuss the emerging next generation of eQTL studies that take advantage of the ability to generate induced pluripotent stem cell lines from population cohorts

Human papilloma virus vaccination: practical guidelines

Cervical cancer has a long latency period and established role of HPV lead to interest in development of HPV vaccine. Main goal of HPV vaccination is to decrease cervical cancer incidence. There are two vaccines available, for the prevention of HPV infection - gardasil and cervarix. Gardasil is quadrivalent and cervarix is bivalent. The FDA has approved gardasil in 2006 and cervarix in 2009 based on their efficacy in phase 3 trails. When recommending HPV immunization of females, it should be offered to girls 11 to 12 years of age, but can be administered as early as nine years. Catch-up vaccination should be offered for females aged 13 to 26 years who have not been previously vaccinated. HPV immunization is not effective in clearing cytological evident disease or HPV infection that is already present and it does not provide immunization for serotypes other than included in vaccine. Cervical cancer screening is recommended to continue as per guidelines

Association of smoking or tobacco use with ear diseases among men: a retrospective study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health related behaviour specially smoking and tobacco in any form are major determinants of health and lead to health inequities. Tobacco leads to various health problems including ear, nose and throat diseases.</p> <p>Objective</p> <p>To determine the influence of smoking or tobacco use on ear diseases we performed a retrospective study among men.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Of 11454 subjects of different age-groups there were 4143 men aged 20-60 years who were evaluated for demographic variables, smoking/tobacco use and middle and internal ear diseases. Descriptive statistics and age adjusted logistic regression analyses were performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Among the 4143 men, 1739 (42.0%) were smokers or used tobacco. In smokers/tobacco users compared to non-users the age adjusted odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for chronic suppurative otitis media were 1.13 (CI 0.96-1.34), acute otitis media 1.16 (CI 0.82-1.64), suppurative otitis media 1.21 (CI 0.79-1.84), otosclerosis 0.97 (CI 0.52-1.33) (p > 0.05) and for overall middle ear diseases was 1.15 (CI 0.99-1.33, p = 0.05). For internal ear diseases the age adjusted odds ratios were for sensorineural hearing loss 1.12 (CI 0.92-1.58), 0.12 (CI 0.42-0.93) for vertigo and tinnitus and overall internal ear diseases were 0.97 (CI 0.77-1.22, p = 0.81). Among men 40-60 years there was a significantly greater risk for both middle ear (OR 1.73, CI 1.29-2.30) and internal ear diseases (OR 1.94, CI 1.24-3.04) (p < 0.001).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Smoking/tobacco use is significantly associated with greater prevalence of middle and internal ear diseases among middle-aged men in India.</p